The disclosed embodiments relate generally to document job management capability and, at least in one embodiment, to a system for managing “disturbance” in a plurality of print jobs.
Conventional print shops typically are organized in a fashion so that related equipment is grouped together. For example, printing equipment may be grouped and located together, while finishing equipment may be grouped and located in another location. Thus, the print shop may be set up to have a printing department, a finishing department, and other departments corresponding to the type of process or operation that is performed within that department. The organization of a print shop is typically often independent of print job complexity, print job mix and total volume of print jobs.
When a new print job arrives, the print job sequentially passes through each department until the print job is completed. The conventional approach leads to significant time delays and increased work-in-progress and inventory costs.
Various improvements for print shop operation have been proposed, several of which have been published as:    U.S. Patent Publication 20020071134 to Jackson et al. Published on Jun. 13, 2002 Entitled, System and Method for Converting Print Jobs Stored in Print shop Job Description Language Files into Print shop Workflow    U.S. Patent Publication 20020129081 to Rai et al. Published on Sep. 12, 2002 Entitled, Production Server Architecture and Methods for Automated Control of Production Document Management    U.S. Patent Publication 20050065830 to Rai et al. Published on Mar. 24, 2005 Entitled, A System and Method for The Acquisition and Analysis of Data for Print Shop Performance Evaluation and Adjustment
U.S. Pat. No. 6,805,502, to Rai et al. discloses an approach for dividing a print job into sub-jobs or “batches.” The batches are separately processed so as to improve the total turnaround time that is required to complete the processing of the print job. The patent describes methods for selecting a batch size for batches so as to reduce the total turnaround time for the print job.
The respective pertinent portions of all of the above-cited publications are incorporated herein by reference.
In document production (as well as a significant number of other types of production), it is common to receive job orders with small size but relatively large due slack (=due time (for job completion)−arrival time). Although these jobs (hereinafter referred to as “disturbance jobs”) have relatively small initial takt-rates (Takt-rate=job size/due slack), and tend to only increase the total job workload a small amount, the demand disturbance caused by these jobs can result in a drastic change in the number of late jobs. It would be desirable to provide a technique for managing demand disturbance so as to improve on-time percentage for the total job workload.
In accordance with one aspect of the disclosed embodiments, there is provided a system for managing a scheduling of a plurality of print jobs for a print shop, including: a memory for buffering the plurality of print jobs; a scheduling system, communicating with said memory, for, (a) scheduling each of the plurality of print jobs for processing unless at least one of the plurality of print jobs is determined to be a disturbance job, the at least one disturbance job causing delays in processing of other print jobs in the plurality of jobs that would not occur but for the existence of the at least one disturbance job among the plurality of print jobs, and (b) assigning a print job processing related value to the at least one disturbance job, the print job processing related value increasing over time; and a filter for causing the scheduling of the at least one disturbance job to be delayed until the print job processing related value exceeds a selected threshold value
In accordance with another aspect of the disclosed embodiments, there is provided a system for managing a scheduling of a plurality of document jobs in a document production environment, including: a memory for buffering the plurality of document jobs; a scheduling system, said scheduling system, (a) scheduling each of the plurality of document jobs for processing unless at least one of the plurality of document jobs is determined to be a disturbance job, the at least one disturbance job causing delays in processing of other document jobs in the plurality of jobs that would not occur but for the existence of the at least one disturbance job among the plurality of document jobs, and (b) assigning a document job processing related value to the at least one disturbance job, the document job processing related value increasing over time, and (c) delaying scheduling of the at least one disturbance job until the processing related value exceeds a selected threshold value.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the disclosed embodiments, there is provided a method for managing the scheduling of a plurality of jobs, including: obtaining a job input stream including the plurality of jobs; scheduling each of the plurality of jobs for processing unless at least one of the plurality of jobs is determined to be a disturbance job, the at least one disturbance job causing delays in processing of other jobs in the plurality of jobs that would not occur but for the existence of the at least one disturbance job in the job input stream; assigning a processing related value to the at least one disturbance job, the processing related value increasing over time; and delaying scheduling of the at least one disturbance job until the processing related value exceeds a selected threshold value.